Type-writing machine.



' PATENTBD MAY 23, .41905.

W. G. PARNUM.: TYPE WRITING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 30,1903.

V3 SHEETS- SHEET 1.4

MTNEEEEE TT'DFeNEY 1510.799292. PATENTED MAY 23, 1905. W. 9. PARNUM.

TYPE WRITING MACHINE. APPLITION FILED JUNE30,1903. f

` 3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

CSD. INVENTUM' PIE TTEJFQNEY Jggggw .Nnmmzgz PATBNTED "2 1905.

o W. o. PARNUM.` MAY 3 TYPE WRITING MACHINE.

APPLIOATION FILED JUNE 30,1903.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

n WITNEESES: l .lvgr-v-TUHQ y JM HIS/maw yIO Patented May 23, 1905.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIcE.

' WILLIAM O. FARNUM, OF ARLINGTON, VERMONT, ASSIGNOR TO WYCKOFF,

SEAMANS 8c BENEDICT, OF ILION, NEWYORIQA CORPORATION OF NEW YORK. Y

TYPE-WRITING MACHINE.

sPEcIEIoATIoN forming/part of Lettefs Patent No. 790,292, dated May 23,1905.

l Application led .Tune 30., 1903. Serial No. 163,684. i

It has been customary7 heretofore to effect the letter-spacing in suchmachines by either moving the printing instrumentalities with relationtothe platen or by moving the platen with relation to the printing instrumentalities. It has been found in practice that the letterspacingmechanism is not sufficiently rapid and effective under all conditionsand under the varying speeds at which the machine is actuated. Forinstance, when the platen is moved relatively .to the printinginstrumentalities it is necessary to move the platen,which weighs say,forty or fifty pounds, together' with the book or paper which itcarries, at each actuation of a printing or space key in order to effectthe lette r-spacing, and the spacing operations are not as rapid as theconditions sometimes require.

The object of my present invention is to overcome the difficultiesheretofore encountered and to provide a simple, rapid, and efiicientletter-'spacing mechanism which will adapt itself to the variousconditions and to the differences in speed of operation of the machine.

To the above and other ends, which will hereinafter appear, my inventionconsists of the features of construction, arrangements of parts, andcombinations of devices to be here- .inafter described, and particularlypointed out of the same. Fig. 3 is an end elevation of the machine withparts in section. Fig. 4 is Yan enlarged fragmentarydetail diagrammaticview of portions of the escapement mechanism, the view illustrating theparts in front elevation and in normal positions. Fig. 5 is a like viewof the same, showing one phase of the feed movements of. the parts. Fig.6 is a like view of the same, showing the completion of the feedmovements under one phase or condition of operation of a letter-spacingf mechanism.

.passes over a guide-roller 7 and through an opening in the table 1. Thelower end of theband 6 carries a weight 8, which tends to move theplaten from right to left onthe tracks 2. The platen 4 is provided withtracks 9, that extend fore and aft of the machine and support a framecomprising a carriage-track 10 and a guide-rod 11, supported at its endsin upwardly-extending bracketarms 11a. It will be understood that thetracks 9 are intended to afford a movement of the carriage from front torear of the machine in order to eect a line-spacing by the usual or anypreferred line-spacing mechanism. (Not shown.) The carriage 12 isprovided at the front portion thereof with tractionrollers 13, whichcooperate with the track 10 to support the forward portion of thecarriage, whereas the rear of the carriage is supported on and guided bya guide or 'traverse rod 11"through the rollers 14 and 14, which embracethe rod on opposite sides and enable the carriage to be turned backthereon. The carriage 12 supports a series of type-bars 15, which areconnected bylinks 16 to key-levers 17 fulcrumed at 18 to the carriage,each key-lever being provided with the usual finger-key 19 and with aprojection 20, adapted to bear upon a universal bar 21. The side arms22, supporting the universal bar, are Jfulcrumed at 23 to fixed portionsof the carriage and are connected at their rear ends, as indicated at24, to links 25, which in turn are connected to arms 26, that project'forwardly from a dog-rocker 27, that carries a fixed dog 28 and a loosedog 29. These dogs cooperate with an escapement-wheel 30, which isoperatively connected to a shaft 31, that carries a feed-pinion 32 atits forward end and is supported in a bearing 33, which is pivotallyconnected to carriage 12 in order to afford a release of the platen whendesired. The feed-pinion meshes with the feedrack 34, that extendslongitudinally of and is carried by the traverse-rod 11. The bearing 35for the dog-rocker and different portions of the escapement devices arecarried by the carriage 12, so that the movement of the carriage`effects a bodily movement of the escapement devices with it. A bracket36 projects from the carriage and carries a rearwardly-projecting arm orstop 37, to which a horizontally-pivoted hook or engaging piece 38 isconnected. The nose 39 oi' this engaging piece extends over and partlysurrounds a rod 40, that extends between and connects the side arms 41of a bracket-frame, which is secured against movement in the directionof the travel of the platen, though it is pivoted at 42 to an uprightframe 43, the lower end of the frame 43 being pivoted at 44 to a bracket45, which is secured to the table 1 of the machine. By this constructionthe carriage is allowed only a limited movement in the direction of thetravel of the platen and is free to be swung back on the traverse-rod11.

The parts thus far described are similar to those employed in the Elliot&`Hatch machine, except as to the specific form of connection betweenthe carriage and the frame comprising the side arms 41, by which amovement of the carriage in the direction of the travel of the platen isafforded, and further detailed description of' the construction isunnecessary. Projecting inwardly from one of lthe side arms 41 is aU-shaped bracket 46, which is adapted to provide bearings for arock-shaft 47, that is bent laterally and prolonged at 48 to form acrank-arm to which one end of a contractile spring 49 is connected at50, the other end of this spring being connected Vto al pin 51, adaptedto be seated in any of the openings 51in one of the arms 4l and in oneot' the braces 41a. The crank-arm 48 is extended at 52 and is bentdownwardly at 53, so as to extend into the path of the arm or stop*37,and which is likewise adapted to bear against the frame comprising themembers 41 and 41a at the point 54,A for purposes as will hereinaftermore clearly appear.

4() is such as to afford an independent movement of the carriage withrelation to the frame 41 41n for a limited distance or for a distancewhich corresponds to` say, eight letter-spaces or between the pointswhere the braces 41 connect with the bar 40. It will likewise. be seenthat the tension of the spring 49 tends to move the carriage toward theright, the spring exerting its pressure through the depending finger 53on the left-hand side of the projection 37. The tension of the spring 49is, however, overcome by the power applied by the weight 8 to theplaten, and when the parts are at rest or in their normal positions thepower of the weight 8 will through the feed-rack 34 move the carriageagainst the tension of the spring 49 until the finger 53 is arrestedagainst the abutment 54, with which it cooperates.

The construction and arrangement of the parts of the letter-spacingmechanism is such that the letter-spacing movements will be effected indifferent manners as the conditions are varied. In some instances adepression of a finger-key 19 will cause a printing movement of thetype-bar and through the actuation of the universal bar 21 will producea rearwardly-swinging movement of the dogrocker 27, so as to move theloose dog 29 out of engagement with the escapement-wheel and swing thefixed dog 28 into the path of the same tooth thereof, thus enabling theloose .dog to receive 'its advance movement by the spring 29u. When thefinger-key is released, the fixed dog will pass out of engagement withthe escapement-wheel and the next advancing tooth thereof will engagethe loose dog and the power applied to the platen will through thefeed-rack 34 and pinion 32 cause the escapement-wheel to be rotated thedistance between two teeth, thus restoring the loose dog-to its normalposition against the tension of its spring 29", and a letter-spacingmovement of the platen will be effected, while the printinginstrumentalities remain fixed against spacing movement.

Under other conditions the depression of a finger-key will bring aboutthe same movements of the feed-dogs; but the tension of the spring 49will become effective on the release of the finger-key to produce aslight movement of the carriage toward the right when the platen isbeing moved toward the left, so that a partial letter-space movement iseflected by the movement of the carriage to the right and a partialletter-space movement is effected by the movement of the platen totheleft, the relative movements between the platen and carriage in oppositedirections making a complete letter-space movement.

The conditions mentioned above relate to the speed of operation of themachine, the amount of tension or power applied to the 1t l platen tomove it, and the weight ofthe platen will be understood that the lengthof the bar f with the book or paper which it carries.

IOO

lter-spacing mechanism 1s provided, which a'cvlexist.

Thus, for instance, if the speed or operation. of the machine is slowand the weight of the platen and the paper or book which it carries aredecreased to the minimum it may be that the power applied to the platenwill be effective to produce a sufficiently rapid movement thereof sothat the platen alone will be moved to produce the letter-spacing andthe carriage may at all times be maintained to the left with thedepending linger 53 against its cooperating abutment 54. This is due tothe fact that the speed of the platen is such that a full letter-spacemovement is acquired before the spring 49 has an opportunity to effect amovement of the carriage toward the right. If, on the other hand, themovement of the platen is a sluggish one and does not keep up with thespeed of operation of the machine, then an opportunity will be affordedat each upstroke of a finger-key for the spring 49 to move the carriagea slight distanceto the right with relation to the platen, and a part ofthe letter-space movement will be ef-l fected by a movement of theplaten toward the left. In each instance the machine automaticallyregulates itself to the various con-- ditions mentioned and accommodatesitself to all speeds of operation and all conditions, such as a sluggishor to a comparatively rapid movement ofthe platen,`and an efhcientletcoinmodates itself automatically to all operations and to differentconditions that may In Figs. 4, 5, and 6 I have illustrateddiagrammatically the changes in relation of the parts during a completeletter-spacing move-i ment, when the carriage and platen move in.opposite directions to effect the letter-spacing. From an examinationof Fig. 4, which represents the normal positions of the parts, it willbe seen that thev tooth a of the feedpinion engages the tooth of thefeed-rack' 34. At this time the loose dog 29 engages the tooth c of theescapementwheel 30 and: prevents it from turning. A depression of a{inger-keyfor the space-key (not shown) effects a movement of the dogstoward the rearl of the machine, releases the loose dog 29,

and brings the fixed dog 28 into engagement with this same tooth c ofthe escapementwheel without allowing it to advance, and the loose dog 29will be moved to the advanced position (shown in Fig. 5) ready on theforward movement of the dog-rocker to engage the next advance tooth c'of the escapementwheel. When pressure on the finger-key is released andthe upward movement thereof takes place, the dog-rocker will swingforward, thereby disengaging the fixed dog from the tooth c of theescapement-wheehand at the instant of disengagement (illustratedV inFig. 5) the power of the weight 8 applied to the platen and feed-rack 34is released from its restraining influence on the spring 49 and saidmove it to the right, thereby shifting the entire escapement mechanismwith it to the right andrelatively to the feed-rack. I have indicatedthis bodily movement of the `carriage relatively to the feed and platenfor a fraction of a letter-space by the lines m and y in Fig. 5. Thussuppose the line .fr to represent a fixed line which is coincident withthe center of the shaft 31 of the escapement-wheel and pinion when theparts are in the normal positions,as indicated in Fig. 4. Then duringthe upstroke of the key the carriage will be shifted to the right by itsspring 49, so that the center of the shaft 31 will move from theposition indicated by the line a. in Fig. 5 to the line y. It will beunderstood that at the same time the feed-rack 34 Ais being moved to theleft with the platen by the power of the weight 8. The movements of thecarriage to the right and of the platen to the left cannot exceed aletter-space distance at each operation of a finger-key or space-key, byreason of the meshing engagement between the pinion 32 and lrack 34 andthe limited extent of the rotation of the escapement-wheel from onetooth to another. vwhen the escapement-wheel is released, as shown inFig. 5, there is a turning of the It will of course be understood thatwheel as well-as a bodily movement thereof from the line fr to the liney, so that the next is moving from the position shown in Fig. 5

back to the normal position and can move no farther around its pivotalvcenter 29h in this ldirection and no further relative movement Vbetweenthe escapement-wheel 30, pinion 32, and rack 34 (and the platen to whichit is connected) can take place. The full power of the weight 8 willthen be applied through the rack 34, escapement devices, arm 37 andfinger 53 to overcome the tension of the springV 49 to -move thecarriage and platen together until the arm 53 contacts with its abutment54 and `.further-movement of the parts will be arrested and the centerof the shaft 31 will have -have been moved from the line g/ back to theline m, where it originally stood. pointed out, in this movement of theescape- As above ment devices and carriage back to the normal IOO IIO

position, and which is indicated by a movement of the center of theshaft 31 from the line y back to the line m, there is no change in therelation between the platen and carriage, the parts moving together, sothat this return movement of the carriage against the direction andacne-half letter-space movement of the platen in an opposite direction,it should be understood that this is taken merely as an example and thatthe extents of movement of the parts in opposite directions will Varyunder different conditions and that in some cases the platen alone willreceive a letter-spacing movement and the carriage will remain fixedwith the iinger 53 against the abutment 54 and that in still other casesthe carriage may receive one or more letter-spacing movements to theright and with relation to the platen, which is moving slowly toward theleft, before the finger 53 has an opportunity to strike the abutment 54.This, however, in no manner affects the letter-spacing, since only themovement of the carriage to the right and not the left changes therelation between the platen and carriage. Should the carriage be movedseveral letter-space distances to the right by reason of the very slowmovement of the heavy platen to the left, the carriage and platen willmove together to the left at the first panse. It will thus be seen thatif for any reason the movement of the platen is so slow as to be almostarrested a rapid letter-spacing can still be effected, since thecarriage in that event would receive almost the entire letter-spacingmovements, and the weight 8 is almost constantly applied to the carriageduring the operation of the machine and tends almost constantl y torestore it to the left against the tension of the spring 49 and theweight becomes effective for this purpose at the slightest cessation ofwork upon the machine.

In practice I have found that by making the bar 40 sufficiently long andthe distance between the arms 41 and braces 4l such that the carriagecan receive eight letter movements relative thereto in the direction ofthe travel of the platen ample travel of the carriage is afforded, and,indeed, it is seldom that there is any necessity for the carriage movingmore than two or three letter-space distances.

Various changes may be made without departing from the spirit of myinvention.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a type-writing machine, the combination of -a platen, printinginstrumentalities, and means for affording letter-spacing movements ofeither the platen or the printing instrumentalities.

2. In a type-writing machine, the combination of a platen, printinginstrumentalities, and means adapted to afford letter-spacing movementsof either the platen or printing instrumentalities,or of both the platenand printing instrumentalities.

3. In a type-writing machine, the combination of a platen, printinginstrumentalities, means for affording a feed movement of the platenfrom right to left, and means for antomatically affording a limitedmovement of the printing instrumentalities from left to right and withrelation to the platen.

4. In a type-writing machine, the combination of a platen, printinginstrumentalities, means for affording a feed movement of the platenfrom right to left, and means for automatically affording a limitedmovement of the printing instrumentalities from left to right withrelation to the platen and for automatically moving the printinginstrumentalities with the platen for a limited distance from ,right toleft. l

5. In a type-writing machine, the combination of a power-driven platen,printing instrumentalities, means for affording letter-spacin gmovements of the platen, and spring-pressed means for moving theprinting instrumelltalities for a limited distance in a directionopposite to the direction of feed of the carriage.

6. In a type-writing machine, the combination of a power-driven platen,printing instrumentalities, means for affording letter-spacing movementsof the platen, and spring-pressed means for moving the printinginstrumentalities for a limited distance in a direction opposite to thedirection of feed of the carriage, which spring pressed means arenormally overcome by the power applied to drive the platen.

7. In a type-writing machine, the combination of a power-driven platen,printing instrumentalities that are adapted to move a limited distance'in the direction of the travel of the platen, a spring that tends tomove the printing instrumentalities in a direction opposite to the feedmovement of the platen, and escapement mechanism between said platen andprinting instrumentalities.

8. In a type-writing machine, the combination of a power-driven iiatplaten, printing instrumentalities, a carriage for said printinginstrumentalities, said carriage being adapted to move a limiteddistance in the direction of the travel of the platen, a spring thattends to move said carriage in a direction opposite to the feed movementof the platen and which when the parts are at lest is overcome by thepower applied to the platen, and escapement mechanism between saidplaten and carriage.

9. In a type-writing machine, the coinbination of a platen, printinginstru mentalities, and letter-spacing mechanism which lirst aii'ords arelative movement of the printing instrumentalities and platen inopposite directions and then affords a movement of the platen andprinting instrumentalities together.

10. Inatype-writingmachine, the combination of a power-driven iiatplaten, a carriage, printing instrumentalities that are carried by saidcarriage, a stop connected to said carriage and affording a movement ofthe carriage in the direction of the travel of the platen for a limiteddistance, a spring which tends to move said carriage in a directionopposite to the feed movement of the platen and which is IOO ISO

overcome by the power applied to the platen when the parts are at rest,and escapement devices between the platen and the carriage.

11. In a type-writing machine, the combination oi' a flat power-drivenplaten, printing instrumentalities, a carriage for said printinginstrumentalities and which has a limited eX- tent of movement in thedirection of the travel ofthe platen, a feed-rack carried by the platen,and cooperating feeding devices carried by carriage.

12. In atype-writing machine, the combination of a flat power-drivenplaten, printing instrumentalities, a carriage for said printinginstrumentalities and which has a limited eX- tentof movement in thedirection of the travel of the platen, spring-pressed means which tendto move the carriage in a direction opposite the feed movement of theplaten and which is normally overcome by the power applied to move theplaten,va feed-rack carried by the platen, and cooperating feedingdevices carried bycarriage, whereby the letterspacing may be eectedsolely by the movement of thel platen or by the movements of the platenand carriage in opposite directions.

13. In atype-writing machine, the combination of a power-actuatedplaten, printing instrumentalities, power-actuated means which tends tomove the printing instrumentalities in a direction opposite the feedmovement of the platen, and escapement devices between the platen andprinting instrumentalities and which are adapted to alford a relativeletterspacing movement between the platen and printinginstrumentalities.`

14. In a type-writing machine, the combination of a power-driven iiatplaten, printing instrnmentalities, a carriage therefor, means `foraifording a limited movement of the carriage in the direction of thetravel of the platen, spring-pressed means which tend to move thecarriage in a direction opposite the feed movement of the platen, thepower of said springpressed means being less than the power applied topropel the platen, a feed-rack carried by the platen, a Jfeed-pinionmeshing with said feed-rack, an escapement-wheel operatively connectedto the pinion, and feed-dogs coperating with said escapementwheel, thefeeddogs, escapement-wheel and feed-pinion being carried by saidcarriage.

Signed at Arlington, in the county of Bennington and State of Vermont,this 27th day of June, A. D. 1903.

WILLIAM C. FARNUM.

Witnesses:

O. E. ADAMS, JAS. A. CULLINAN.

